Map search tools, such as yp.yahoo.com, mapquest.com, and maps.google.com, allow searching for entities (e.g., businesses such as “sandwich shops”) “near” a known point (e.g., an address or a zip code). They even allow one to construct multi-point routes —as long as one knows all of the points on the route. A user may want to know where the sandwich shops are most convenient to the user's commute from office to home. However, with existing known solutions, the user has to search for sandwich shops nearest the office, then nearest home, do some manual number crunching, and then pick one. This manual process is difficult and time consuming (on an order between linear and quadratic) as the distance between the starting and ending points increases.